yours, mine, ours
by chalantness
Summary: He has to bribe the kids to keep them from letting their mom in on the surprise.


**Title:** _yours, mine, ours  
_ **Rating:** PG-13  
 **Word Count:** ~2,700  
 **Characters:** Steve/Natasha, ft. James and Tatiana  
 **Prompt:** "Imagine Person A of your OTP waking up early to bake Person B a cake before they wake up. Then Person B wakes up with Person A beside them with a cake beside the bed and they share a birthday kiss."  
 **Summary:** He has to bribe the kids to keep them from letting their mom in on the surprise.

 **A/N:** Fluff, fluff, fluff. And not much else. Writing my babies' babies is one of my most favorite things ever.

 **yours, mine, ours**

He has to bribe the kids with another camping trip over spring break to keep them from letting their mom in on the surprise. It's something he and Natasha had been planning to do already, since they loved going up to the lake so much last year, so it's not like he's going behind her back or anything. He just needed a little extra something to convince the kids to play along, because keeping things from each other is a big deal in this house, and kids take it very seriously. They all do. Yeah, they want to make sure the kids know they can always come to their parents about anything, but a lot of it stems from Natasha and how much she _hated_ hiding things from him under orders. He'd brushed it off a long time ago, but still.

She wants their kids to know how important it is not to keep secrets, especially from the people who love them. Steve definitely agrees.

This is different, though. This is a little surprise, something to start off their mom's birthday as soon as she wakes up, and he has to present it to them exactly like that before they promise not to let anything on. They're kids, yeah, but they're good actors and absolutely love surprising people. (Totally get that from Natasha, too.) They can pull this off.

Natasha is _tired_. He knows she is, because she doesn't even stir as he slips out of bed.

He's usually up before her, anyway, but she'll wake at the slightest movement, and he'll kiss her on her forehead and let her sleep for another hour before she actually gets up to start her day. But she'd been out on an assignment over the weekend, and then her flight got delayed, and she didn't end up getting home until a few hours ago. Of course she's tired.

It kind of works for him this once, though.

Tatiana pokes her head out of her room as soon as Steve's in the hallway, and then her door opens a little more and James sticks his head out, too. Steve remembers joking with Natasha once about just putting the two of them in one room, because they're almost always together, anyway. They'd actually entertained the idea a bit, but it doesn't really make sense to, since they have more than enough rooms in the house to keep it this way. And, especially as they get older, there'll be days where those two will want their own spaces.

(Just the thought of that breaks his heart – those two drifting apart, even a little. Natasha says he's worrying over nothing, and yeah, he probably is.)

"Daddy, is it time?" Tatiana whispers. She flashes a toothy smile at him when he nods, throws her arms up so he'll carry her. She's getting a little bigger and a little heavier, but she still loves to be held sometimes, and he's not going to pass up the chance to carry his baby girl.

He ruffles James's hair, just because, and the three of them make their way down the staircase and into the kitchen.

He sets Tatiana onto one of the stools at the kitchen island as James climbs onto another, and she pushes off of the counter with her hands so she can spin.

"Careful, T," James says, even though she does it all the time. He's always looking out for his little sister.

"I know, James," she answers, like he's so silly.

Steve grins, shakes his head as he pulls the cake mix out of the pantry. Steve almost always does his baking and cooking from scratch, but the boxed mixes from the store are just easier to use with the kids, and this is supposed to be more from them than it is from him. They're quicker to make, too, and not as messy, which will mean they'll probably have it done in time before Natasha wakes up and there won't have so many dishes to clean up, especially since the kids will probably want to help make breakfast once they're all finished.

James picked out the flavors – chocolate cake with vanilla icing – and Tatiana picked out the confetti sprinkles, and the pink icing for the lettering.

Steve pulls out a basin and a whisk and two measuring cups, sets it all down on the counter before getting the carton of eggs from the fridge and the vegetable oil from the cupboard.

He cuts open the packet of cake mix and dumps it into the basin, then slides the measuring cups towards James. "Want to measure everything out, buddy?" he asks, and James bobs his head in a nod, reaching over to grab the box.

"One and a half cups of water," he reads, and then hops off of the stool and goes to the fridge to get the pitcher. He fills it slowly to the line, getting this crease between his eyebrows as he makes sure he doesn't go over. It makes Steve grin. His eyebrows knit together in that same way when he's concentrating, and Natasha will, every time, run her thumb over it and grin when either of them makes that face. And it's crazy, how much he looks like Steve. His hair is a different color, and his face is still babyish, but they already look so much alike.

But James is a lot healthier than Steve was growing up ( _thank god_ ). He's a little slender, because his mom is, but he's already an inch or two taller than the average for his age, and he's still got a lot of growing left to do. There's no doubting that he'll look just like Steve later on.

James has a lot of Natasha's personality, though. He's playful, and already pretty witty for nine years old, and gets all quiet when he's in a mood, which kind of comes from both of his parents, and it probably isn't the healthiest way for a kid to handle his emotions, but they're working on it. It's not like he _won't_ talk about things. It just takes a little prodding.

Tatiana is _all_ her mother.

Her hair is more strawberry blonde than it is red, and her eyes are a paler kind of green, but that's as far as the differences go. She's got her mother's thick curls and long lashes and pink lips, and she's this slender little thing that has amazing balance and like, no fear whatsoever. She climbs on everything, and jumps off of everything, and it scares the crap out of them – all three of them – but she almost always lands on her feet. Or, if she doesn't, she'll usually just pick herself up and dust herself off and keep going. She's already enrolled in gymnastics, and her teacher suggested they have her try out cheerleading, too, so they're looking into that for the summer. Natasha likes to blame him for their daughter being this little daredevil, which, yeah, maybe it's his fault. She has his sass, too, and his knack for acting first and thinking later, which is fine for now, but that'll no doubt be a problem later on.

It's kind of funny, how James and Tatiana are this perfect mix of him and Natasha, but they're still so opposite of each other in a lot of ways. It's neat to watch.

Anyway.

James measures out and pours the water and vegetable oil, and Tatiana cracks in the three eggs, and Steve mixes it together with the whisk. (They have an electronic blender that the kids usually use, but he's trying not to make so much noise, so he'll just do this part for them.)

They pour the batter into a pan and slide it into the oven once it's preheated, and Steve sets the timer and puts their dishes into the sink.

"Can I wash them, Dad?" James asks, already reaching for his step-stool. They've got one for him and Tatiana on hand, though James will probably outgrow the need for one soon.

Steve smiles. "That'd be great, James," he says. "You're a big help."

James gets this wide, dimpled grin on his face, and Steve kisses the top of his head.

"Daddy," Tatiana says suddenly, and Steve turns to look at her. "We should make Mommy a birthday card, too!" she exclaims in this hushed voice.

"Good idea, baby," Steve says, holding his hand out for her to grab as she hops off of the stool. "Want to go get your crayons and some paper from the office?"

She bobs her head in a nod and then sets off, and by the time James has washed everything and set it down on the left side of the sink to dry, Tatiana is walking back into the kitchen with an armful of crayons (leave it to her uncles to buy her so many boxes, so she'll have _every color_ ever made) and a few sheets of paper.

She and James sit next to each other at the island and start working on their cards, and Steve grabs the strainer and a container of strawberries and dumps them in so he can rinse them off. Chocolate-covered strawberries are Natasha's favorite treat, and he bought a tub of fast-hardening chocolates that he can melt over the stove so he can make a few. It was one of the first things he made for her when they'd gotten together, officially, and something she'd craved almost every day through both pregnancies. He knows she'll love them.

The timer goes off as he finishes coating the last strawberry, and sprays water into the pot and lets it soak as he pulls the cake out of the oven.

"Why're you putting it in the freezer, Daddy?" Tatiana asks, frowning. (She looks _so_ much like Natasha. It still trips him out sometimes.)

"Well, we have to wait for it to cool down a little before we can decorate it, otherwise all the frosting will melt," he explains, reaching over to brush her hair from her face. "Sticking it in the freezer will speed things up."

Tatiana tilts her head, hums a little as she seems to accept this answer (wonder who she gets _that_ from) and then goes back to her coloring.

He pours himself a glass of orange juice and sips from it as he just watches the two of them at work. He thinks he should ask if they're hungry, but they're so focused on their little project and he doesn't want to interrupt. They would've asked for breakfast by now if they were ready to eat, anyway.

He smiles. Sometimes it still takes him by surprise, how good he has it now.

Not like he could forget what it took to get here, or that he takes for granted that he has all of this – home, a family, _stability_ – in the first place.

It just… It's something he used to think about a lot more, when Natasha first told him that she was pregnant, and when James was still a baby, and Steve would get out of bed in the middle of the night to find Natasha sitting in the nursery, cradling James in her arms. Steve had always wanted a wife, and kids, and a house with big front lawn and a huge porch. But after coming off of the ice, all of that become more of a passing thought than anything else. He wasn't so sure he could still have any of that, and he didn't really focus on the future. He'd just gone through the motions of each day, not really wanting _anything_. Then Natasha waltzed right into his life, and little by little, she became the one and only thing he wanted.

And nothing else really mattered. He just wanted her in his life, wanted to see her every day, and, somehow, she wanted that, too.

Guess he's still got a bit of luck on his side.

Once Steve finishes his juice, he rinses out the glass and sets it in the sink, then pulls the cake out of the freezer. James taps his sister's shoulder so Tatiana will actually look up from her coloring, and she _beams_ and all but shoves her crayons aside so she can lean in closer.

James says he wants to frost it (because he knows Tatiana is _all_ about the decorating) so Steve hands him the tub of frosting and a spatula and lets him have at it. It turns out pretty good, too, because James is actually really particular about this kind of stuff, and Tatiana's used to it by now. She doesn't even try to rush him as he takes his time to smooth it out as much as possible, just puts her elbows on the counter and watches with this little smile on her face, like she does sometimes when James is drawing or making her something out of clay.

It's cute, watching these two.

When James is finished, he picks up the piping bag of pink icing and hands it to Tatiana, and she has a little trouble squeezing it out, so he puts his hands over hers and helps.

They spell out _HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOMMY_ in the middle of the cake, and then add _WE LOVE YOU_ underneath it. Steve smiles.

Tatiana takes her time with the sprinkles, too, and then Steve sets the cake and the plate of chocolate-covered strawberries onto a tray and lets the kids add their cards on. He picks the tray up, nods to the staircase, and Tatiana giggles behind the hand that James isn't holding as they make their way quietly up the steps.

There are very few people Natasha doesn't mind being woken up by, and of course her husband and kids are on that list, especially with the surprise they have.

He feels kind of bad about not letting her sleep in a little more, but honestly, she's probably already awake, or would've woken up on her own in a few minutes, anyway. It's already bright out and she's almost always up by now on her own, even on a Saturday, just because she's so used to getting up early to help the kids get ready for school.

Tatiana pushes the door open and sort of runs inside, and Steve can tell that Natasha's already waking up by the time Tatiana climbs onto the bed next to her.

"Mommy," she says, softly, prodding Natasha's shoulder. She stirs, and Steve doesn't miss the grin at the corner of her lips as she keeps her eyes closed. Tatiana huffs. " _Mommy_."

Natasha stays still, and, just as Tatiana starts to turn away, she tickles the girl's side and Tatiana _squeals_ , letting her mother scoop her into her arms and press a loud kiss to her cheek. James laughs and takes off, too, practically throwing himself onto the bed and tackling Natasha and Tatiana into a hug.

"Happy birthday, Mommy!" they exclaim.

"Thanks, guys," Natasha laughs, hugging them closer. "I missed you _so much_ while I was gone."

"We missed you, too," James says, poking her stomach. Natasha grins and kisses his hair. "We have a surprise for you!"

"Oh yeah?" Natasha asks. She turns to meet Steve's gaze and he winks.

"They made it for you themselves," Steve tells her, and Tatiana and James shift off of their mother so Steve can set the tray onto her lap. He watches as Natasha blinks a few times, the way she does when she knows she could cry, if she lets herself, but she's trying not to. "Hope you don't mind cake for breakfast," he adds with a grin.

She laughs again and shakes her head. "Well, if it's just this once," she teases, and then brings a hand up, pinching James's cheek. Tatiana giggles. "You guys made it all by yourself?"

"Daddy helped," Tatiana replies. "Do you like it?"

"I love it, sweetheart." Natasha kisses her cheek again, softer this time, and presses one to the middle of James's forehead.

"Happy birthday," Steve says, and Natasha gnaws her lower lip a little, eyes twinkling as she leans over and grasps onto his shirt, drawing him close for a kiss. He hums into it, kisses her a little deeper, a little longer, and then laughs when Tatiana lets out a giggle. "Did we surprise you?"

"Yeah," she answers, and he knows she means it. The kids definitely won't let that go anytime soon. Surprising Mommy is a big deal.

"We didn't have any candles, but you can still make a wish," James tells her.

"That's alright," she answers, pulling him and Tatiana close as she meets Steve's eyes. "My wish already came true."


End file.
